Software, Solutions and Accessories

[BruceF]

Ref Acer eM250 (no cd drive) purch Feb 2010.

I have reinstalled Win XP from the recovery partition of the hard drive.

All went OK, however Windows Update will not work, so I cannot update. It gets to the point of "Checking for Updates" but does nothing, no line activity at all.  I have to eventually force it to close down.

There are numerous postings on the web as to how to fix but none of these have worked.

I suspect the Win XP being an early revision is not compatable with the latest Windows Update.

Any ideas, what are my options here?

[finlux]

Hi Bruce

There's no reason for Windows Updates not to work on XP, it is still supported until April 2014. I presume your laptop has SP3 installed?  I'm not sure what fixes you've tried from the web, but Microsoft offer a Fix-it here.

If that fails to work, try another re-install from your recovery partition.

Let us know how you get on!

[BruceF]

Have tried re-install three times.

Have tried Microsofts Fix-It but does not work.

Have tried several other fixes to no avail.

Don't know if it has SP3 but if it does not cannot use Windows update to update it!

My feeling is it needs some updates to work but Windows Update wont do it!

[finlux]

To find out if you have SP3 press the Windows key & the pause/break key. Alternatively, right click My Computer & select Properties.

Windows updates will only work on XP with SP3 installed. If you haven't it can be downloaded here (select "Stand alone version").

[BruceF]

I down loaded and installed SP3 just to make sure, but no change.

My computer indicates SP 3 is there.

I have tried Microsoft's Fix-It for Windows Update again, it reports 6 errors 5 of which it can't fix.

If I run it again it reports exactly the same errors, even the one it was supposed to have fixed on the first run.

Just to make sure things were not just a slow computer or network I had Windows Update checking for updates for three hours this morning but nothing happened. Had to use Task Manager to close it.

[finlux]

OK, there may be some help, here.

[finlux]

Hi Bruce!

Further help you may be interested in, sent to me by a colleague - Many thanks!!

The updates fail due to a flaw where the svchost associated with windows update runs at almost 100% CPU usage.  This is in part due to windows update being dependent upon IE and if IE is not up to date...

This is based upon having IE8 installed:

Using Process Explorer or Task Manger kill the running process ‘wuauclt.exe’. (Windows Update)

• Turn OFF Windows Update totally. (Just temporarily)
• Wait for the CPU usage to return to normal.
• Download the most recent cumulative security update for IE8 here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41074
• Run or Save the download.
• Once this update has been applied, restart the machine, turn Windows updates back ON and  proceed with the normal updates scenario.

Hope this works for you!

[BruceF]

Well what do you know!!!!!

I went through killing wuauclt.exe etc, then tried Windows Update and it seeded as though it was going to go on forever.

But after about 2 1/2 hours of running it finally sent a message "To use this version of update you need to download some items" with a Download Button there to use.

Clicking this button it downloaded two items:

    Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool (KB892130)

    Update for Windows XP (KB898461)

After this download and install it then listed another 125 updates needed.

As I speak the computer is "Preparing for download" so fingers crossed!

[finlux]

Great news!

Lets hope this solves your problem!

[BruceF · Accepted solution]

Yes problem solved, all back to normal, getting plenty of updates.

Thanks for all the help given.